Kori
Image © @a-book-of-creatures, accessed on A Book of Creatures here
[I have not read Folk Literature of the Cuiva Indians, the book that is used as a source here, so I don’t know how accurate this take is. But. Knowing that the Cuiba were traditionally semi-nomadic hunter gatherers, the story of a kori destroying a riverside village seems to me to have a bit of a “and here’s why we don’t make permanent settlements” vibe. Which makes it all the sadder that the Columbian government has forced them villages to become agriculturalists. Which makes them prey to missionaries, and the loss of their language and traditions, and the usual things that happen when small ethnic groups are put on reservations. So this is kind of a bittersweet last monster for South America, before moving onto another continent.]
Kori CR 12 NE Magical Beast This mighty creature resembles a shaggy, green furred anteater, larger than an elephant. Its tail is broad and has fins running along it.
A kori is a physical embodiment of erosion. They live in wide, shallow rivers, deltas or swamps, and constantly erode the riverbanks to expand the water’s edges. Using their powerful claws and hurricane breath, they knock down trees to create sunny, muddy patches, where they forage on their favored prey, freshwater clams and crabs. Unfortunately, kori also despise construction of any kind, and go out of their way to swamp boats, flood villages and destroy settled communities.
In combat, a kori usually opens by creating a vast expanse of sticky entangling mud. It can move through such hazards with ease and does so, slogging through to a single victim to tear them limb from limb before moving on. If it is feeling particularly sadistic, a kori will just use control water spells to raise the water level over the heads of mired victims, trapping them to drown. If multiple enemies are able to cluster together or are capable of flying over the mud pit, it blows them away with its hurricane breath, or slams them in unison with a single sweep of its mighty tail.
Areas where a kori dwells are difficult for permanent settlements to develop in, although it will typically ignore nomadic communities. Druids of a more destructive bent consider kori to be their allies, although the kori themselves are rather more ambivalent on the idea. Although kori are mighty combatants, they are relatively vulnerable to poison—it is thought that the arrow and blowgun toxins, ordeal poisons and other pharmacological tools of jungle people have developed in part to help keep these monsters at bay.
A kori is about forty feet long, and stands ten feet high at the shoulder.
